Say no to Stop & Shop

Following is a letter that I have emailed to the Martha’s Vineyard Commission about the enormous scale of the proposed Stop & Shop project. (I do hope that the MV Times will step up the reporting on this important issue as the deadline draws near. It is going to have a huge negative impact on our dear town.)

Please vote against the enormous expansion of the Stop & Shop store in Vineyard Haven.

While I recognize that the store needs to be renovated, I do not support the size and scale of their endeavor. A look at the pole on the roof to show the actual height of the structure should bring it into perspective as it did for me. It is huge and would dwarf Water Street and Five Corners.

I have other concerns, too. It will be awfully close to our beloved harbor. What about runoff issues? What about all of the machinery needed to run a huge structure like this? Noise pollution? And parking? It’s hard to get a spot in that lot now. What’s it going to be like when this mega-store is built? And what of the impact on traffic in what is already a tight little corridor with the ferry coming in?

Increasing the size of the building significantly will limit the amount of available space on the outside. Where will people be able to walk? And what about the other businesses on Main Street who will probably lose business when people can’t find a place to park to shop? We have a shortage of parking on Main Street as it is.

There are just so many reasons why this is a bad idea. None of it makes any sense to me. The town will suffer, and the burden will fall on us taxpayers to take up the slack. The only winner here is Stop & Shop.

Please do not let this go through. Please either have them scale it down and rework the space they already have or have them do this behemoth in a more suitable location.

By the way, isn’t that big old truck parked outside of the building now violating sign regulations in the town of Tisbury?